[Farmall] "Vintage" Tractor Crawl in New Zealand

[Roger Moffat]

Hi George

On Nov 10, 2005, at 10:15 AM, George Willer wrote:

> Does this ring any bells?  I wonder what became of Dot?

I'm "from" New Zealand, but have lived in the US (Caledonia,  
Michigan) for 12 years now, so aren't up with what happens with olde  
tractors in New Zealand too much.

But years ago, when a youth I used to holiday on a farm, and later  
lived there a few years - there were numerous various Farmalls/IH  
tractors from F-12, F-14, F20, M, TD-35, WD-40 - each one mainly had  
its own job, like hay mower tractor (F12 and F14), or hay baler  
tractor (F20), or hammer mill driving tractor (the WD40). They also  
had a Lanz Bulldog that didn't get used much - now there was an  
intersting tractor!!

The farm still owns all of these machines, although I'm not sure how  
many if any run these days.

I remember when one of our attempts to mow the new hay field with 4  
tractors (3 Farmalls and a David Brown 30C) with 6 foot sickle bar  
mowers bogged down after a couple of hours of tanglement and  
frustration with a heavy new crop. Called a machinery company, and  
the guy came down the next day with a Taarup mower (4 spinning  
discs). We connected it to the David Brown 990, and the guy climbed  
on, in the rain, yanked the throttle wider than it had ever been I  
think and took off in 5th gear, and in short order was around the  
field. We took him home and wrote out a cheque there and then for the  
mower and the Farmall mower fleet was never used again!!!

Oh those were the days LOL

Roger